Who Are We?

I have a confession to make. We’ve had this blog for 1 year and 9 months and still haven’t written a decent “about us” page. We do have a page on the top menu titled Who, but up until now all it divulged was our names and a photo. Not very revealing. I’ve tried to add more details, but each time I find myself at a loss for words. I can easily share with you the things we do for fun, the people we meet, even what we eat, but when it comes to personal stuff about us, I draw a blank.

Tim + Amanda = the Watsons
But Who Are We?

Then I started thinking about it in a different way. Instead of guessing what people might want to know and compiling a boring paragraph about each of us, I decided to use questions that we had already been asked. A lot of readers send us questions through email, comments on the blog, or on our Facebook page. So in an attempt to share who we are I compiled a list of these questions and our answers. I chose the ones that I thought reveled the most about us and how we live. These are actual questions as written by actual readers, but in many cases that answers have been shortened for the sake of readability.

This list, along with a short introduction, is now on our new and improved Who page. Please let us know if you have any questions you think we should add.

Did you win the lottery, or receive a huge inheritance?
Nope and nope, although we keep hoping.

My question is simple….how do you make a living on the road? 
Tim is a web developer who works remotely for a company based in North Carolina. Amanda is still in the process of finding a way to make a few bucks while on the road.

Do you make money from the Watson’s Wander blog? 
Currently no. Why? Do you want to pay us for our supreme knowledge and witty banter?
All joking aside, we are hoping to someday make a little dough from this blog, so if you are a company who would like to advertise here, or have us review a product, please contact us.

How do you live full-time in a 25′ trailer? 
Very similar to how we lived in a 2,000 sq. ft. house. Only now we are always in the same room. And there’s no lawn to mow.

Ever wish you had a bigger RV? 
Sometimes, yes. We wish we had a better work area that didn’t also double as our eating area and all-purpose table. For the most part we are happy with our size, but we do talk about upgrading to something (maybe a 30-foot Airstream) a bit bigger in a few years.

What are the pros and cons to living in a 25′ trailer?
Pros:
– Ease of maneuverability
– Ability to visit many places where larger trailers and motorhomes can’t go
– Living together in a small space & spending virtually all of our time together has made us realize the strength of our relationship
– Easy and quick to clean a house that is under 200 sq. ft.
– Lack of space means we are forced to adopt a minimalist lifestyle
Cons: 
– Very little room for indoor entertaining
– No personal space – nothing is private
– A small mess quickly makes the trailer feel like a disaster zone
– Lack of space means we have to be selective when it comes to those creative projects that we both love so much

I noticed that you camp in a lot of remote areas. Have you experienced any problems towing into areas (BLM land) and off the beaten path?
Only once did we almost get stuck in some soft sand. Four-wheel drive saved us. For the most part don’t drive down roads that we aren’t sure about. There is a huge wealth of knowledge out there regarding boondocking areas, and we have found that others are always willing to share. If we really want to check out a previously unexplored area than we unhook and go at with just the truck.

Do you ever worry about safety when camping in remote areas?
Very rarely, and if we do find ourselves somewhere that really doesn’t feel safe then we leave. Bad stuff happens everywhere, but we’ve found that with a little common sense we feel just as safe RVing in the boonies as we did living in our house in the woods.

Do you take military showers in the trailer during your boondocking stays? 
Yup. Also while camping at public parks that don’t have sewer hook-ups. Sometimes we even get really daring and take an outdoor solar shower. For the sake of our neighbors, we try to limit that to camping spots where we have lots of seclusion.

How do you stay warm in the Airstream? 
Snuggling. When that doesn’t work we turn on the furnace or the propane catalytic heater.

What kind of food do you eat while on the road? 
The same kind we ate when we weren’t on the road. Except maybe better because we have access to all kinds of year-round fresh produce that we couldn’t find while living in the frozen northeast.

Found any interesting food recipes lately? 
Yes! Check out Amanda’s Pinterest boards where she has hundreds of recipes pinned. Occasionally we share recipes in our blog posts. To find all the posts with a recipe included simply click on the food category on the side bar.

What kind of camera do you use? 
An Olympus Pen. It’s a micro 2/3 camera, which means it has DSL capabilities with a much more compact form. Perfect for hiking. It’s an older model and although we’ve had it for around 5 years it still works for our needs. We also take lots of iphone photos and sneak them into the blog whenever possible.

I love your Map. Can you make me one? 
Ask again soon. Tim is working on making the map available for others to use.

How do you plan your route? Do you have a plan?
We have a loose, long-term plan. We know where we want to go over the next few years, but if asked exactly where we will be next December the 15th we would have no idea. As far as route planning goes we generally decide specifics anywhere from one week to a few months ahead of time. It all depends on where we are.

Do you make reservations? 
Only if we have to. We prefer not to be tied down by reservations, but have learned that during busy times of year, like summer and school vacation, it’s the only way to get into the good places.

How do find areas with a decent Internet connection?
Primarily we use an app developed by some fellow full-timers that provides a map of cell coverage for all the major carriers in the U.S. It’s called Coverage? and am not sure how we would get by without it. Tim needs to be online for work everyday, so it’s essential that we have a decent connection.

What method do you use to obtain your Internet connection?
For the most part we rely on cell phone data. Currently we have two 20G Hotspot plans from Millenicom that provide us with coverage through Verizon (although if you look at their website you will notice they don’t actually say the coverage is from Verizon. This is due to some legal mumbo jumbo). We also both have phones through AT&T that provide us with a small amount of data. We try to only use this data as a back up, but occasionally we find ourselves in an area where we get better AT&T than Verizon, so it’s handy to have. Every once in awhile we use the wifi that is provided by a campground. This happens very rarely because, for one we don’t often stay in the kind of parks that offer wifi, and two the wifi most campgrounds provide it pretty slow. We do have a wifi ranger that extends the signal, but even that doesn’t help when you have 200 people using the same crappy connection. Finally, we sometimes seek out public wifi at libraries or cafes.

What is your plan when it’s all over? Or will it ever be over? 
No plans and not sure if, or when, it will be over. Right now we can’t imagine going back to a conventional lifestyle. If we do decide to stop traveling chances are it would only be for part of the year. We are hooked!

Can we meet you?
Yes please!!!! We are always up for meeting new people. Contacting us is easy. You can leave a comment here on the blog, or on our Facebook Page. Send us an Email, or find us on Goggle+ or Twitter.